An evening with legends Benn and Collins by Kev Parker Oct 24th 2006

On Saturday October 21st I attended a dinner Show promoted by Carl Greaves with Nigel Benn and Steve Collins as guest speakers at The Bearings in Newark Notts. The venue really is ideal for these type of shows as the layout allows everyone a good view of the top table and two giant screens that showed several fights from both fighters careers for the duration of the evening. The whole show was a great success in my opinion. It started at approx. 7 o'clock and as Benn and Collins arrived, a photo opportunity was made immediately. As you can imagine the queue gathered size pretty quickly but it was done in a professional and efficient way and I was very pleased with the three photos I got later on in the evening. We then sat down to begin the introductions of the top table which had the two champs, their agent Kevin Lueshing, local fighters Andrew Lowe (recent debutant) and Dean Sugden (kickboxing world champion) and Lee Swaby all receiving grand applause from their respective followers. Then onto the dinner, which was and always is at Carl's show's, a very tasty four-course dinner. The room got the opportunity to go to the top table in small bursts for signing of memorabilia throughout the evening and by the end I'm sure everyone had the chance to get their respective pieces signed and was given a warm greeting and some banter from both the former world champs. An auction was held with some excellent boxing and football pieces that all fetched a worthy amount, these included a Tyson signed picture and glove, Benn v Eubank signed glove, two Muhammad Ali multi photo signed framed pieces, Benn signed trunks and a Benn Vs Collins signed multi photo frame. Also up for grabs was a replica WBO world title belt that one lucky punter had the chance to obtain. As part of the entertainment we had a table magician and comedian to keep us ticking over in between courses. At the end of the courses a Q+A was opened up to the floor with no subject taboo and everyone kept the questions respectful, Benn and Collins revealed that the best fighters they had faced were Gerald McClellen and Mike McCallum respectively. Benn never liked to spar too much in preparation for fights ‘why go to war in the gym, that's what the fight's for!' Benn also revealed that when he first turned pro he only ever to hoped to have achieved southern area title level, British at best, this amazed me considering how accomplished his amateur career had been. Collins retired as he thought the only fight for him was Roy Jones JR and since he had been made aware that it wasn't going to happen he decided to call it a day and go out on top. As an added bonus for me I got a photo taken with Kevin Lueshing and enjoyed a brief chat with him, he also signed a great shot of him dropping Trinidad that he gave to me. He made himself available throughout the night and my wife even chatted to him at the bar, she mentioned how relaxed and pleasant he was. I came away delighted with how the evening had gone and what other pieces of memorabilia I had managed to get to add to my collection and of course getting the chance to meet some more great fighters.

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